It was a cashiers (not personal) check for thousands of dollars so he trusted it and didn't make sure it cleared before mailing the merchandise.

A cashier's check is a check drawn on the bank itself. So unless the check was forged, I don't understand how it could "bounce" unless the bank went under -- this is why people pay for cashier's check, for the absolute guarantee that it will be cashed.

Seen it happen also - it's a phony cashier's check, drawn on a phony bank ...

I once banked my tax cheque from the Reserve Bank of Australia and the bank still waited three days. Wouldn't we have something to worry about if that cheque bounced?

"A cashier's check is a check drawn on the bank itself. So unless the check was forged, I don't understand how it could "bounce" unless the bank went under -- this is why people pay for cashier's check, for the absolute guarantee that it will be cashed."

That's the scam, of course. The check is a forgery. It'll show the name of a real bank but since it's a fake, the bank will have no record of issue so they won't honor it, and most people aren't familiar enough with cashier's checks to spot a fake reliably. PSA: if you receive a cashier's check for anything, treat it like any other check by depositing it and waiting for it to clear before acting on it, or call the bank it's drawn on and verify it. It may be harder to forge a bank check than a personal check but it's still not that hard.

This email is to notify you about the release of your outstanding payment which is truly $15.500.000.00 USD. The New Prime Minister ( UK) scheduled a time frame to settle all foreign debts which includes Contract/Inheritance/ Gambling/ Lottery(Sponsored by Microsoft and National Lottery) and other international loans.News had it that over the past,numerous individual (s) who happen to be impostors (claiming to be individuals, banks and organizations) are claiming to release numerous sums of fund via numerous ways.

With the help of the (OFAC)U.S Treasury Department's and with the FBI we have noticed that people have being asked to pay outrageous amount of money by these impostors for the transfer of their funds to them. We want you to stop all communication that has to do with these fraudsters who have been requesting unreasonable sums of money from you to release your funds which they do not have access to.

We have received a mandate and instructions from the (OFAC)U.S Treasury Department's to commence the immediate release of your funds through one of the following payment options stated below depending on your choice:

1. Payment via Automatic Teller Machine (ATM card): This is where you will be sent an Automatic Teller Machine card with Pin also known as ATM card (A Master Card would be issued). Upon receipt of your custom ATM card you will be allowed to withdraw $10,000 per day by default and you are given the option to transfer funds from your ATM card to your bank account.

2. Certified Cashiers Check or Bank Draft: In this case you will be sent a certified bank draft or check signed in your favor which you will deposit in any bank for it to be cleared within 3 to 5 working days at most depending on your bank.

3. Online Banking ( Bank To Bank Transfer) to enable you process this operation, $250 Dollars is Required for opening for an online banking operation, that will enable you get access to your account Online.

Below are few list of tracking numbers you can track from FedEx and UPS website to confirm people like you whom have successfully received their payment safely.

You are advised to select one out of the three options on how you wish to receive your $15.500.000.00 USD, Your Online Banking Acess or ATM card or Check/Bank Draft will be shipped via Courier Shipping Company and would get to you within 2 working days at most.

For international shipping as stated by our company We had to sign contract with Courier for bulk shipping which makes the fees reduce from the actual $320.99 to $190.99 nothing more and no hidden fees of any sort.

You are advised to contact the Department's Officer responsible for the shipping of your Check or ATM card with the following information for shipping of your payment Check or ATM card.

The Department's Officer Barbara Carroll will provide you with instructions on how you are to make payment of the $190.99 only for the shipping of your ATM card or Cashiers Check.

You are to adhere strictly to the instructions above for more information contact the Department's Officer.

Remember that you are not paying any fees extra no matter what. Once again note that the actual Courier Retail Price: $320.99 Your Price (Because of our contract signed): is now $190.99 ( $130.00 Savings!).

Thanks,Cecelia M Lum

Sigh. I'm not stupid, I'm not clicking and for $%^^*#@ sure I'm not sending money.

Just got a call from someone in an obvious boiler room (lots of chatter in the background.) Asking for Mrs.k2002 and saying that they were from the "US Department of Health Care." I suggested that he leave us alone.

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

DH was eager to tell me about a strange phone call we got this morning from "Computer Support" about viruses on our computer He was curious, so he played along - they walked him through checking something in the start menu, counting the number of stopped processes (which means absolutely nothing, honestly), and then tried to direct him to go to some website and download a remote-access program so they can "fix the computer remotely." Otherwise known as "install a keylogger and steal your bank passwords."

DH thought this was so novel and hilarious - I didn't have the heart to tell him we probably get one of those a week Just as well he's a programmer and knew exactly what was going on . . .

Upon receipt of your custom ATM card you will be allowed to withdraw $10,000 per day by default and you are given the option to transfer funds from your ATM card to your bank account.

All the US ATMs that I've seen will let you withdraw about $300 per day max. I don't know how much money they're loaded with daily, but I'm pretty sure that dispensing $10,000 to one individual would drain one dry.

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Common sense is not a gift, but a curse. Because thenyou have to deal with all the people who don't have it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

" I don't know how much money they're loaded with daily, but I'm pretty sure that dispensing $10,000 to one individual would drain one dry."

A typical ATM can hold somewhere around a quarter million dollars fully loaded, although most aren't loaded with more than $150,000. Still, one disbursal of ten grand wouldn't slow it down. The cash limit is to minimize theft by fraudulent card use, mostly.

Oz ATM's and EFTPOS have an $800 limit. I think it might have been lifted to $1000 recently with some banks, but the majority still have $800 as the daily use limit.

I'm also in Oz and that very much depends on the ATM and your card provider. Mine will do $2,000 per withdrawal, up to $10,000 a day, if I elect to have it do so. $800 is just the default for them, not the maximum.

What really kind of stuns me about these scammers is that if they came up with a more realistic amount more people would bite - $15,500,000 is so ridiculous that most people know it's a scam immediately.

Had they come up with something like $7,000, more of the unsuspecting public would find that believable and at least question it...giving them a second chance to make the scam work.

And I'm stunned that anyone would pay nearly $200 to get an ATM card shipped to them...how ridiculous does that even sound?

You learn about one scam and immediately ten new ones pop up, it's crazy.

It has come to our attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated aspart of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraudon our website. If you could please take a few minutes out of your online experience and updateyour personal records, you will not run into any problems in the future with the online service.

However, failure to update your records could result in account suspension. Please update yourrecords as soon as possible.

To update your account information, please download and open the attachment file that we sentvia this email, and simply open it with your web browser.

Once you have updated your account records, any activities going through your account will nolonger be interrupted.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please understand that this procedure is to keep you andyour account in a protected state.

I just think that is such fantastic customer service, for Paypal to track down an email address that I don't even have associated with Paypal in order to send me this information, and how convenient of them to send an attachment I can download!

It's to the point where I have very little pity for people who fall for this junk. It's all been around long enough that I think most people should just know better.

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What have you got? Is it food? Is it for me? I want it whatever it is!